This invention relates to an ambulatory aid which may be a walking cane having either a single tip or a four-legged bottom otherwise known as a quad bottom or may be in some cases a crutch.
Ambulatory aids of this type are intended to assist the walking of infirm patients and hence have design characteristics which are very different from novelty or other type canes which are not used by the infirm. It should be noted that for the infirm walking can often be a very difficult process and an effectively designed cane can improve the walking in an objectively measurable manner of patients and in some extreme cases can make the difference between a patient being effectively able to get about and otherwise being confined to a wheelchair.
Despite the importance of aids of this type, little development has been made in this area for many years and infirm patients are often left to use unsatisfactory equipment which does not assist their walking as much as otherwise could be possible and which in many cases serves to accentuate their difference from the normally ambulatory population.
It is one object of the present invention, therefore, to provide an improved ambulatory aid which because of its design in the handle area and also its construction of the stick portion provides an improved structure in terms of its handling, length adjustment and in some cases weight.
According to a first aspect of the invention, therefore, there is provided a walking cane comprising a stick portion and a handle, the handle comprising an elongate generally cylindrical hand grip portion which can be grasped by the hand of a user, which has a forward end and a rear end and which lies generally at right angles to the length of the stick portion, and a hand engaging stop member projecting outwardly from the forward end of the hand grip portion, the handle being shaped such that, with the stick portion vertical, the upper surface of the hand grip portion is inclined downwardly toward the stop member and such that an extrapolation of the stick portion intersects the hand grip portion intermediate its length.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an ambulatory aid comprising a stick portion and a handle, the stick portion being formed from two separate cylindrical sections, one having a male screw thread on the outer surface thereof and the other having an axial bore at one end for receiving the first section and a cooperating female screw thread on the surface of the bore whereby the axial extent of the stick portion can be adjusted by rotating one section relative to the other, and a lock collar having an internal screw thread for cooperating with the male screw thread to lock the section in a desired adjusted position, the lock collar and screw threads of the sections being moulded from an instant setting polymeric material.
According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided an ambulatory aid comprising a stick portion and a handle, both moulded from instant setting polymeric material, the stick portion being tubular and formed with a rigid metal tube inside, coaxial and integral with the moulded tube.
The handle therefore is particularly shaped so that the weight of the user is directly positioned above the cane so the cane even from a position behind the user tends to fall forward with the hand of the user as the body of the user also moves forward. The handle is also shaped so that the hand of the user tends to slide towards the stop and therefore remains accurately and firmly within the hand of the user even when the user has a poor grip as is often the case with particularly infirm patients. Furthermore, the user can either hold the handle with the hand resting against the stop or in some cases as preferred by some patients, the user can grasp the top of the handle, that is the top of the inclined hand grip portion rearwardly of the stop, in a particularly effective and suitable manner.
The construction of the stick portion formed from two tubular members is particularly effective in producing a lightweight cane which also can be accurately adjusted to very fine limits to obtain exactly the right length for the particular user involved. Furthermore, the structure of the cane allows it to be readily modified to incorporate what is known as a quad bottom should the cane be used by another patient or should the patient become less able and thus requiring more assistance.
With the foregoing in view, and other advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, which includes a description of the preferred typical embodiment of the principles of the present invention, in which: